This morning there were a few spots of rain. I had already been out for my weekly walk to the Post Office and was home before it started. It only lasted about five minutes, anyway.
Then, around an hour ago, it began again. I always know when it's raining early in the season because of a distinctive scent that permeates the atmosphere. I learned from this post about the first rain on The Cyprus Blog that it has a name: petrichor. The Wordsmith site defines petrichor as, "The pleasant smell that accompanies the first rain after a dry spell." It comes from two Greek words: petros (stone) + ichor (the fluid that is supposed to flow in the veins of the gods in Greek mythology). Actually I thought ichor was the fluid supposed to flow in the veins of dragons...
It's been raining steadily for over an hour now. Not the wild, tropical rain that we sometimes have here, lasting perhaps twenty minutes and followed by brilliant sunshine. This is more like English rain, which should be much better for the plants and - we hope - the reservoirs.
It's a bit sad for the two people staying in our guest flat at present, particularly the one who arrived from the UK this afternoon, in the midst of the rain. But the forecast is good for the rest of the week, so we hope they will see at least a little sunshine.
I'm wondering if I should find our thin quilt for tonight, and maybe even make the switch from shorts to jeans tomorrow... not that it's cold yet, but heavy rain in the Autumn always seems to make the temperature drop by a few degrees. According to the weather site, it's only 24C right now - which is chilly enough for Richard to want to put on a sweatshirt. Tomorrow's supposed to be sunny and back to 28C though.
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